The Relationship Between Preeclampsia and Arsenic Concentration in the Peripheral Blood

Preeclampsia (PE) is a pregnancy-specific disorder, which is one of the leading causes of maternal, fetal, and neonatal death, particularly in developing countries. Arsenic (As), which is commonly found in soil and groundwater, has been associated with various complications of pregnancy, such as spontaneous abortion, hypertension, and stillbirth. Hence, the study was used to explore the relationship between PE and blood concentration of As in this study. Blood concentration of As during pregnancy was measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The results shown that the mean blood concentration of As was gradually increased from the control group to the severe PE group (P < 0.0001). Elevated blood concentration of As was associated with the prevalence of PE (OR = 12.81, 95% CI: 2.43-67.39 and 27.55, 1.75-433.43 for middle and high vs. low). Furthermore, elevated blood concentration of As was associated with the severity of PE. Additionally, we observed that blood concentration of As was associated with the hypoproteinemia (P = 0.001, r_s = 0.37). Blood concentration of As was negatively corelated with the mean corpuscular volume (MCV) (P = 0.040, r_s =  - 0.23) and positively corelated with the mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) (P = 0.044, r_s = 0.23). Overall, our results indicated that the blood concentration of As can significantly predict the occurrence of PE. Additionally, we provided evidence that blood concentration of As may affect the occurrence of hypoproteinemia. These findings may provide some ideas for the prevention of PE and pregnancy complications.